I suppose the two counties have roughly equal populations and budgets?
I’m sure you wouldn’t post this otherwise. Right?
Dude, it’s a per capita comparison.
Someone doesn’t understand ratios.
Dude, dude.
Nothing in that article so much as hints at the available budgets for Maricopa and Pima counties, per capita or otherwise.
Dude.
Or did I miss it? Dude?
Someone doesn’t understand that heads don’t generate money. Tax base does.
If the budget is inadequate to provide sufficient voter locations, that is deliberate. Budgets are a reflection of the priorities of local legislators. Maricopa County realizes their own voters are an existential threat, and budgeted accordingly.
At least you are abandoning the population misdirection. Good.
I got this one, Bricker.
What a stupid thing to say, you do realize all voters, regardless of party affiliation, had to use the same available polling locations, don’t you?
And Maricopa County IS NOT a Democratic area:
507,826 voters registered as Democrats (26%)
691,241 voters registered as Republicans (35%)
[740,530 voters registered as Independents (38%) (not eligible to vote in the Presidential Preference Election which is solely for voters registered within a specific political party to specify their preference for a candidate of their political party for the Office of President.]
So if the idea was to suppress Democratic votes, it is unfounded. If anyone was likely to have their vote suppressed by the lack of polling places or not having enough ballots on hand, it was the Republicans by the tune of 183,415 (9%) more registered voters in Maricopa County than Democrats.
Glad to have helped fought your ignorance, an apology is not necessary.
(numbers from [pdf alert] http://apps.azsos.gov/election/voterreg/2016-01-01.pdf)
I too hope there are more polling locations available on the next Election Day. Maybe this experience will cause people sign up to vote by mail or vote at the early voting locations.
Yes. Write on the blackboard fifty times:
*This thread is about GOP vote-suppression.
This thread is about GOP vote-suppression.
This thread is about GOP vote-suppression.
This thread is about GOP vote-suppression.
This thread is about GOP vote-suppression.
*
Contrivances in voter ID laws is just one of many nefarious means to the pernicious end.
The voters can replace their legislators at any election with other legislators who can cut public libraries and after-school care to provide chauffeured limos from door to door for voting any time they please.
Do you believe that a linear function or a step function better describes the relationship between the number of voters and the number of polling places?
Here’s a hint:
1 voter — 1 polling place
2 voters — 1 polling place
3 voters — 1 polling place
4 voters — 1 polling place
.
.
.
2998 voters — 1 polling place
2999 voters — 1 polling place
3000 voters — 2 polling places
3001 voters ---- 2 polling places
Do you think that maybe total population, economies of scale, and absolute size of tax base has anything to do with this discussion? Anything at all?
Don’t think I don’t appreciate the effort.
But you won’t see anyone acknowledge their error.
Well, I didn’t make the argument that the Maricopa County actions were intended to suppress Democratic voters, so I’ve got nothing to apologize for.
Nevertheless, it seems incredibly stupid, no matter how you look at it. Especially so if Maricopa is a Republican stronghold (it’s where Sheriff Joe Arpaio is from). Although Phoenix, which is in the county, tends to go Democratic, I understand. In any event, reducing the number of polling places by 70% since 2012, especially during such a contentious race, seems truly absurd. Lots of voters in the county were crying “suppression”:
county Recorderr Helen Purcell says it’s her fault, but that she had good reasons for her actions, and she’s not resigning.
This needs a closer look to understand what’s going on. There is certainly something peculiar here.
In any event, there are other things going on in Arizona that suggest monkeying with the vote:
http://usuncut.com/politics/5-examples-voter-suppression-arizona-primary/
Man, those GOP Vote Suppressors are EVERWHERE.
No. None. Not at all. 1:21000 is indefensible. There is no excuse for forcing voters to stand in line for 5 hours. Any county that cannot or will not provide for an efficient voting process that enables the largest number of voters to participate in the election is guilty of malfeasance. You should be ashamed for trying to hide that behind meaningless statistical obfuscation.
Help me out here. You do understand that it would be possible to put the 60 polling locations in Maricopa county in disproportionately republican areas, right? I’m not saying that happened, because I don’t have any information that cites that, but what you’re saying here isn’t the slam dunk you think it is.
Your argument seems to suggest that the county is homogeneous, which is probably not the case.
It might be as simple as putting a bunch of polling locations in geographically disparate rural areas, and a few in highly populated urban areas.
Says Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell:
Yes, it’s the voters’ fault for wanting to vote.
They don’t even bother to pretend anymore, do they?
I’ll help you out: you say “You do understand that it would be possible …” and “I’m not saying that happened, because I don’t have any information that cites that …” and “…which is probably not the case.” so my help to you is to suggest you do the homework and find the information/cites that backs up your “possibles” and "probably nots.” It’s the Pit, not Great Debates, so you don’t have to support your argument but I’m not going to to it for you.
Do you know Maricopa County and the Phoenix Metro Area? Maricopa County consists of lots of desert & farmland & the Phoenix Metro Area. While I’ve never lived there, I have been there numerous times (family visits & business trips) and am familiar with it. Here’s a link to where polling locations were in Maricopa County. I know enough to recognize the majority of locations are in the cities of the Phoenix Metro Area (the population center) and on the main streets.
So if you want to come back with details of polling locations in disproportionately Republican area or that a bunch of polling locations were in geographically disparate rural areas, I’ll look at it and if it is factual, I will admit it.
Also, voting by mail and going to early voting locations were options.
I recognize there were not enough polling places in Maricopa County but it wasn’t a ploy to discourage Democratic voters, it affected all voters.
Simply because an idea is stupid and malicious doesn’t make it a Republican plan. The whole voter ID mess is because of a plan that is malicious but very clever, well crafted to sell. This thing is just brain-dead dumb. About the only way I could see this as comparable to the whole voter ID thing is suppressing turnout across the board, figuring that Republican voters will go to the polls regardless but Dems may not. Pretty weak.
Remember, the original voter ID scam as cooked up by the evil wizards of ALEC wasn’t on this grand a scale, it was designed not to prevent Dem voting, but making it a bit more difficult, thereby shaving a couple of points or so off the Dem voting. Enough to win the close ones in carefully gerrymandered districts. That’s a smart malicious plan.
This thing is so stupid its hard to see that it has any design at all, much less a malign one.
Again, I’m just saying that your smug post was embarrassingly stupid, because you didn’t consider that the county wasn’t uniformly GOP. Your central concept, that you thought was a slam-dunk, wasn’t what you thought it was.
I saw that list of 60 polling places. As I said, I don’t know that the assignment of polling places is disproportionate, and neither do you. And your “point” in your post depends on that not being the case. So, you fucking dipshit, maybe you should check that out before acting like you’re teaching someone remedial math?
In other words, you strutted in like a baus, and you had toilet paper trailing from your shoe. Just think before you cockily intone, “I got this one, Bricker.”
:rolleyes:
One wonders if Bricker will point out that Fred’s point was inept. One does wonder.
Maybe missing something here, Lobo, but I’m not seeing it. We can easily set a default position of totally dumb pooch-screwing without needing any malign intent. Maybe they just totally fucked up. Shouldn’t prove to be too hard to unearth some stats to flesh out the plot, sure bet somebody has.
If the polling places were chosen to disadvantage Dem voters, that won’t be too hard to illustrate, and somebody would have done the research by now. After all, the Pubbies would have needed to know that to cook their scheme. So, has anybody done that?
I don’t need a whole lot of proof to start seeing a dastardly plot, but gonna need some. You got it, you brought it, and I missed it?